Bio

Angus McKinnon Young (born March 31, 1955 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a rock guitarist who has been the lead guitarist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC since the group was formed in 1973. Angus is known for his hard-edge blues style lead (and signature vibrato), wild stage energy, and schoolboy clothing style.

Angus, along with older brother Malcolm, was brought up in Glasgow's east end in the area of Cranhill. He started playing guitar when he was about five years old. A neighbourhood kid had one and Angus would play with it during visits. He got his own "guitar" by taking a banjo his family had lying around the house and re-stringing it like a guitar. He didn't really get into guitar playing seriously until his early teens after the Young family moved from Scotland to Australia (as did former AC/DC frontman Bon Scott). He got his first Gibson SG after seeing it in a friend's catalogue. Until then, he had been playing on an old Höfner guitar he inherited from his brother Malcolm after he got a new Gretsch Jet Firebird.[citation needed] Angus and Malcolm's brother George (of The Easybeats) would give them guitar lessons when he would come home during breaks from touring.

Prior to AC/DC, Angus worked a part time job for an Australian soft-core pornographic magazine titled Ribald.

Angus Young practiced with his band, AC/DC, which was just developing at the time. He played with his brother Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, drummer Colin Burgess, Larry Van Kriedt on bass and Dave Evans singing. Angus had developed a trademark 'schoolboy' style in the band. One rumour is that he did not have time to change between his school uniform and band practice, and simply wore the uniform. The truth is, though, that Angus very much disliked being at school and once he had left and was in AC/DC, his sister suggested he wear the uniform as a gimmick. Henceforth, the schoolboy costume became a signature trademark of the entire band.

Angus Young is notorious for his wild onstage antics. He entertains audiences with his intense moves and jumps onstage and with his running back and forth across the stage while playing the electric guitar. During live shows, Angus would clamber on singer Bon Scott's shoulders and they would make their way through the audience with smoke streaming from a satchel on his back while he played an extended solo, usually during the song `Rocker'.

In later years, Angus performed moves such as his own version of the Duck Walk, which was inspired by his idol Chuck Berry, and his "spasm", during which he throws himself to the ground, kicking, shaking, and spinning in circles, while playing the guitar, of course; both can be seen in the "Who Made Who" video.[2] Angus developed the "spasm" while playing live in a small club in Australia when he tripped over a cable onstage, while playing his solo. He made it into part of his act by having a seizure-like "spasm" onstage to make it seem as part of the act. It has grown ever since. Other gimmicks employed by Angus include his strip act, which is viewable during "Bad Boy Boogie" on the most definitive live concert footage Let There Be Rock (1980). Also viewable in AC/DC DVDs: during "Jailbreak" on Live at Donington DVD, during "Boogie Man" on No Bull, and during "Bad Boy Boogie" on Stiff Upper Lip Live. Sometimes he would use his fingers to perform his devil horns act, whether being on-stage or having his picture taken by some local Paparazzi.

Angus Young's energetic guitar style has been an influence on an entire generation of young Hard rock guitarists.[citation needed] His work with AC/DC has been an influence on bands ranging from Guns N' Roses and Def Leppard to newer artists like Jet and You am I. Angus cites his own influences as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and other blues/early rock players.[3]

"I didn't join a rock band to be famous," he said in 2001, "I joined a rock band to play my guitar."

Although Angus Young keeps his private life out of the media it is known that he now lives in Sydney, Australia and Aalten, Netherlands. It is also known that he married his wife Ellen in 1980 right before Bon Scott died.[citation needed]

Maxim recently ranked the diminutive Angus (5 feet, 2 inches tall) as tops on their list, "25 Greatest Short Dudes Of All Time," ahead of such notable "short dudes" as Napoleon Bonaparte, Martin Scorsese, and Yoda.

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